Category Archives: art

With Christmas just round the corner and I reflect on Christ’s birth, I often think of the words of my favorite carol,

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth

And so, I was blessed to have just returned from a visit to the Holy Land and I got to go to Bethlehem. And just in time too, as with President Trump’s announcement of the USA recognising Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, things there are likely to become a whole lot more complicated and unsafe.

I have to say that Bethlehem was not at all what I expected. As per the carol above, I would always imagine Bethlehem as a quiet, sleepy little village. The reality is that Bethlehem is a noisy, bustling, dusty town. The streets are filled with traffic and there is a busy bus terminal a short distance from the Church of the Nativity (the supposed birthplace of Christ). I don’t think these days there is any “how still we see thee lie” or “Silent Night” in Bethlehem.

The other thing that I witnessed in my short visit was the animosity and fear. Bethlehem is under Palestinian Authority and Israel has built a very, very tall wall separating it from Jerusalem and Jewish settlements (part of a 708 km long barrier which the Israelis call a security barrier, the Palestinians call an apartheid wall and the International Court of Justice called illegal). In Bethlehem, the wall is up to 8 m high.

As a result of the barrier, Palestinians cannot easily travel around to Israeli controlled areas without permits and having to undergo security searches at the few gates in the barrier. I know of one former colleague whose 5 minute walk to work was transformed to a one hour commute due to the barrier. Similarly, Israelis cannot venture into Palestinian controlled areas with out due cause and permits and if they do, personal safety is always a worry. These difficulties have also reduced tourism, business and jobs in Palestinian areas.

I also witnessed the tension within the community. On the streets and in the shops, suspicion and wariness of each other was occasionally evident between the different communities. I also saw some Islamic extremist hate literature plastered on some walls and heard the duel between the Muslim call for azan and the pealing of church bells.

There is no peace and there is no quiet on the streets of Bethlehem today. What would Jesus think?

I think, Jesus would not be surprised. Man will be selfish, jealous, covetous and contentious. It is the nature of man, our sinful nature and this is why he came to be born; to give us a better way which is beyond our own means to attain. This is the hope that he brings. Peace and hope.

And if the world seems, for the most part at the moment, to be ignoring his message, perhaps it is no surprise either. The King of Heaven was born in Bethlehem but the world mostly ignored him then too. In fact, as we are told, there was no room for him at the inn.

On that note, I want to end this reflection with sharing about an inn or rather a hotel that I saw in Bethlehem. It gave me a chuckle amidst all the gloom. The hotel is right by the wall. It faces the wall. The management admits that it has “the worst view of any hotel in the world” and its rooms only get about 28 minutes of direct sunlight a day. This is Bethlehem’s answer to the famous Waldorf Hotel. It is the Walled Off Hotel.

I later learned that this hotel was set up by the famous artist, Banksy, to help create job opportunities for the Palestinians, support Palestinian artists (the hotel also functions as an art gallery) and make a statement about the political situation and the wall.

Squirrels love to bury their precious nuts so as to uncover them later to enjoy at leisure. In the same way, this blog, from time to time, brings an old post back for another short period in the sun. This particular nut first saw light of day in 2007. My goodness – that’s a decade ago! Well, as September is always special to me for a number of reasons, here it is uncovered again……with a couple of editorial changes.

But first, let’s have some mood music by Neil Diamond who apparently also loves September morns….

It is the beginning of September and I noted a number of my blogging friends from the Northern Hemisphere are lamenting or at least marking the passing of summer. However, a few like me are ready to welcome September and the beginning of autumn. September has always been a special month for me. It seems like some of my happiest moments have been tied to this month or at least this season. In celebration of September, I offer this posting on the theme of “September Morn”. Below is a famous painting by Paul Chabas and the music is by Neil Diamond.

“September Morn” by Paul Chabas

Quoted from Bonnie Bull
“On a September morning in 1912, French painter Paul Chabas finished the painting he had been working on for three consecutive summers. Thus completed, it was aptly titled “Matinee de Septembre” (September Morn). As was typical of his style, the painting was of young maiden posed nude in a natural setting. This time the icy morning waters of Lake Annecy in Upper Savoy formed the natural setting and the maiden was a local peasant girl. The head, however, had been painted from the sketch of a young American girl, Julie Phillips (later Mrs. Thompson), which he had made while she and her mother were sitting in a Paris cafe. Apparently, he had found her profile to be exactly what he was looking for.

(LGS notes: Could this be a pre-Photoshop example of pasting someone’s head on to someone else’s naked body?)

The completed painting was then sent off to the Paris Salon of 1912 to be exhibited. Although the painting won Mr. Chabas the Medal of Honor, it caused no flurry of attention. Hoping to find a buyer, the artist shipped the painting overseas to an American gallery. It was here in America that the painting was destined to receive undreamed of publicity and popularity.

One day in May of 1913, displayed in the window of a Manhattan art gallery, it caught the eye of Anthony Comstock, head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Horrified by what he saw, he stormed into the store, flashed his badge, and roared: “There’s too little morn and too much maid. Take her out!” The gallery manager, however, refused to do so.

The ensuing controversy was given wide publicity by the press and the painting was simultaneously denounced and defended across the entire country. Meanwhile, curious crowds filled the street outside the shop straining to see the painting that caused such a stir.

Soon enterprising entrepreneurs were reproducing September Morn on everything conceivable: calendars, postcards, candy boxes, cigar bands, cigarette flannels, pennents, suspenders, bottle openers and more. Purity leagues tried to suppress it. Postcard reproductions were forbidden in the mails. The painting became the object of stock show gags and even inspired an anonymous couplet that swept the country, “Please don’t think I’m bad or bold, but where its deep it’s awful cold.”

(LGS notes: Why, this is like a meme!)

The painting went back to Paul Chabas who sold it to a Russian collector for the ruble equivalent of $10,000. After the Russian Revolution it turned up in Paris in the Gulbenkian Collection. Ultimately the painting was purchased by Philadelphia Main Liner Willaim Coxe Wright and donated to Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum in 1957 after being refused by the Philadelphia Museum of Art because it had no significance in the twentieth century stream of art. It’s estimated market value in 1957 was $30,000. The painting still hangs in the Metropolitan Museum as an example of 20th century French works and reproductions can be purchased in the museum’s gift shop.”

Has it finally happened?!?!?! Has the Lone Grey Squirrel become so grey that he has entered the proverbial second childhood?

For whatever reason, LGS has returned to the childhood activity of trying to colour between the lines. I blame my wife. She started it and I got dragged in.

As you smart and trendy readers would know, there seems to be a surging interest in colouring books for adults. These books are full of line drawings of varying complexity but all uncoloured. All awaiting our inner child to awake and put our imagination and creativity on paper. It is touted as a great way for stress relief and I guess it is more constructive than my old standard of throwing darts at a picture of my boss.

At any rate, the sheer proliferation of such books are a clear reflection of its popularity. And as I always say, “50 million monkeys can’t be wrong”!*

*in case you are wondering, those are lyrics from the song “The Peanut Vendor” by Moises Simons of Cuba; although the English lyrics were by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Marion Sunshine.

Anyway, I present before your cruel, critical eyes,some of my early work in this medium. Please be kind – like to a helpless baby seal. Thank you.

SQUIRRELS! Of course, I had to start here! This could be my coat of arms….what do you think? (drawing from Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom; colouring by LGS)You may be wondering what possessed LGS to do this? All I have to say is SHROOMS! (drawing from Millie Marotta’s Tropical Wonderland; colouring by LGS)Now, colouring between the lines seems to be here to stay, like a BIRD COMING IN TO NEST! (drawing from Millie Marotta’s Tropical Wonderland: colouring by LGS)

As I mentioned in passing in my last post, I had my birthday last month. I did not really celebrate it in anyway as is usually my custom. However, one of you dear readers wanted to know what I wanted for my birthday. So here is the answer(s);

1. The PC answer – “I only wish for world peace.”

2. The megalomaniac answer – “I want to rule the world.”

3. The isolationist answer – “I just want to get away from the world.”

4. Probably the most heart-felt answer at the moment……… I want one of these………

Model of Eagle Transporter from Space 1999

This is my current obsession. Made worse because I cannot get it. It’s like an itch that I cannot scratch. Arrrrgh!

Some of you will know or remember Airfix models? I used to have a few of those kits which you had to assemble yourself with a bit of glue. It was my childhood passion.

Let’s see I had planes like the Skyhawk, the Saab Viggen and the Jet Provost below;

I also had model ships like the RMS Mauritania luxury cruiser ……

and the Graf Spree pocketbattleship…….

Unfortunately, my mother did not share my enthusiasm and considered my models a nuisance that collect dust and take up table and cupboard space. So eventually, my collection disappeared.

When I was not around, some of the better ones were given away by my mother to obnoxious brats (otherwise known as distant cousins and kids of family friends).

Before they were all given away, I decided to go down with the ship – so to speak. I personally disposed of my few remaining models in spectacular fashion.

The Pièce de résistance was my sinking of the RMS Mauritania. I placed ballast in the hold of the ship and floated it in an old abandoned bathtub in an empty lot and then set it on fire. Then I sat back and watched the thick acrid smoke billow from the many tiny porthole windows until the mighty (model) ship sunk below the waves. That was the funeral pyre for my model collection.

That was many, many years ago but now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I am hankering to get back into doing these model kits. Not too many. Just a select few. And the one I really want is the Eagle Transporter from the old TV series Space 1999.

Firstly, I was a fan of the series; secondly, the Eagle is just way cool and has such interesting details and thirdly, it can come in several configurations by having interchangeable central pods. It could be a standard transporter or it could be a science laboratory or it could be a rescue ship etc.

My problem is that I cannot find this model kit anywhere now. It’s production probably stopped years ago and the remaining kits still out there are quite rare.

A few years ago, I was in Washington D.C. and I took the opportunity to visit the museums but because I am a taphophile, I was also very keen to visit the Arlington National Cemetery and the war memorials.

When I was growing up, the Vietnam War was not far away and people spoke of the “domino theory” which suggested that a communist victory in Vietnam would lead to the fall of other nations in South East Asia to communism in quick succession. The war was never far from our thoughts and from our news. And then the Vietnamese refugees started coming to our shores; we called them the “Boat People”. When I was 14, I spent my school holidays as a volunteer with a U.N. office trying to match names on search requests sent in by relatives against a long list of names of registered refugees in the hope of reuniting separated loved ones. I never did succeed in making even one match.

And so, I was very aware about the Vietnam War and I did visit the Vietnam War Memorial.

But there was another earlier Asian war that I and many, many people are less familiar with …….. the Korean War. It was a little before I was born and I was never taught anything about it in school. Believe it or not, the first I learned about it was from watching the TV series M.A.S.H.

Yet in many ways, although much shorter, it was a bloodier war than the Vietnam War. The percentage of casualties compared to soldiers committed was extremely high. For example, the average U.S. casualties per month was 4,257 for the Korean War as compared to 2,092 for the Vietnam War (source:Korean War Educator). And the suffering of the Korean people was great with as much as 10% of the population killed – a rate of civilian deaths which were higher than that for World War II.

I was deeply moved when I had the opportunity to visit the memorial to what some have called “the Forgotten War”, and remember the sacrifices made and the lives lost.

This commemorative stone was actually in the Arlington National Cemetery but the inscription of the number of casualties suffered attest to the ferocity of the fighting. ( Photo by LGS)

Historians may debate the why’s and the how’s of the war but the sacrifices of the soldiers were real and worthy of our respect. (Photo by LGS)

One of the main elements of the memorial is this collection of statues; a ghostly squad on patrol in eternal vigilance. (Photo by LGS)

As a monument, I prefer this to the Vietnam Memorial as it’s visual impact is more visceral. (Photo by LGS)

The other main element of the Memorial is this dark granite wall with faces of soldiers and civilians from the war. (Photo by LGS)

As I look at the faces, I wonder what were their stories. Were they killed? Did they survive? What has happened to those who came back? (Photo by LGS)

Judging from the noticeable lack of comments on my previous post and the content of the few comments that were there, the political situation in the USA remains tense and is a topic that is either offensive or uncomfortable with readers. So I decided that for this post, I should stick with a topic that should be offensive to no one but myself …….. i.e. my recent 50th birthday.

It was actually in September but that was right in the middle of my big house-moving exercise and blog break, so I did not post on it earlier. Of course, I got my expected portion of “50 year old” gag birthday greetings like “You are now officially an Oldie” or “Don’t worry – once you are over the hill, you pick up speed”. Sadly, that was about all I got. Not a single present. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

My wife was trying to plan a surprise party for me with some friends but with all the packing and the rush of moving house, it did not materialize. I don’t usually celebrate my own birthdays so it was not really missed. Some say that turning the BIG 50 is an important milestone that should be celebrated but I think they are just hoping for a party and some cake. Besides, I don’t think of myself as 50 but as 18 with 32 years of experience!

Anyway, to celebrate the additional 32 years of being 18, I tried to trace how my tastes and directions have changed during that time. As you see, I am still a work in progress and still changing……..

Viewing the World Through the Observation of Squirrels

About Me

Lone Grey Squirrel
I am a scientist who enjoy the arts; a socialist who wishes to be rich; a food enthusiast who wishes to be skinny and a human who loves squirrels. Just a nutter trying to make sense of the world.